‘Beast from the East’ – Stony Stratford

‘Beast from the East’ – Stony Stratford

I had an intense but enjoyable three days taking on the ‘Beast from the East’ recently on my home turf around Stony Stratford. Needless to say, it was bitterly cold and the longest time for a single session I could manage was 4 hours (that includes time hunting around for the right subjects so not always static). After that the body really started to complain and the toes were getting numb so it was back to base camp to thaw out and dry all the kit! It was certainly the coldest I’ve ever painted in and at the limits of the paint being workable.

I bumped into Derek Daniells on my first sortie and had an enjoyable session painting alongside him down at a good spot in Mill Lane. Unfortunately the paint wouldn’t stick in the blizzard like conditions so I returned the next day to complete the painting.

The next day, after wandering around with kit for far too long I had the idea of heading up to Calverton church to see what the churchyard would look like in the snow. Thankfully it looked pretty good so I pitched up and painted this piece below. It was beautifully peaceful with the thick carpet of snow and no traffic on the roads and I wanted to try and capture that sensation of the moment.

‘Silence amongst the snow, Calverton church’ – 12x16in, oil on board

Painting on location at Calverton Church

The third piece was painted along the river bank and I wanted to paint something without the complexities of architecture to contend with as the weather was really clamping down again, I enjoyed working with the subtle tones and colours on this one and liked the overall quiet/gentle understatement of the subject.

Snow along the river bank, Stony Stratford – 14x10in, oil on board

For the last painting I hadn’t intended to go out but as I was pretty worn out from the previous couple of days sessions. However, I couldn’t resist and there was just enough patchy snow left to paint something before it literally all started to melt before my eyes. This one is down at the main park area by the river.

‘Melting snow, a winter walk – Stony Stratford’ 10x8in, oil on board

There are rumours of a bit more snow this weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed!